Simon Akam was almost killed on Russia's highest mountain in 2017.It was a narrow escape from a near-fatal accident on a commercial skiing expedition – and it provided a reckoning. Rather than turn away from the mountains, Akam resolved to go back. This time, though, he wanted to do it properly.He would go with the right people – alpine natives, not carpetbagging Anglophones. He would learn the right skills and serve a proper apprenticeship, aimed at true a...

'Inspiring' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down'Fascinating and useful' - Joe Moran, author of First You Write A SentenceBestselling and award-winning authors share the secrets to their success, and the hard lessons they have learnt along the way.Where do the best ideas come from? How do you stay motivated? What does it take to become a published author? And how do you actually make money from your wr...

A TLS and a Prospect Book of the YearA revelatory, explosive new analysis of the British military today.Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Britain has changed enormously. During this time, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answe...

English Football has over 92 fully professional clubs. Players in the Premier League teams now earn an average salary of £2.3 million per annum. Meanwhile, on the bottom rung, entire squads make less in a year than Wayne Rooney takes home in a month. An army of young players sacrifice their education and prospects outside of sport for the dream of football success, despite that fact that 85% will be released from their contracts within five years. Simon Akam's book shows what the beautiful...

Simon Akam was almost killed on Russia's highest mountain in 2017.It was a narrow escape from a near-fatal accident on a commercial skiing expedition – and it provided a reckoning. Rather than turn away from the mountains, Akam resolved to go back. This time, though, he wanted to do it properly.He would go with the right people – alpine natives, not carpetbagging Anglophones. He would learn the right skills and serve a proper apprenticeship, aimed at true a...

'Inspiring' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down'Fascinating and useful' - Joe Moran, author of First You Write A SentenceBestselling and award-winning authors share the secrets to their success, and the hard lessons they have learnt along the way.Where do the best ideas come from? How do you stay motivated? What does it take to become a published author? And how do you actually make money from your wr...

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the YearNCAA football is big business. Every Saturday millions of people file into massive stadiums or tune in on television as "athlete-students" give everything they've got to make their team a success. Billions of dollars now flow into the game. But what is the true cost? The players have no share in the oceans of money. And once the lights go down, the glitter doesn't shine so brightly. Filled with mind-blowing details of major NCAA football scand...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season Inside presents a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional tennis, with in-depth analyses of players, tournaments, and the inner machinations of the sport.“Hard Courts is the best book on professional tennis that I’ve ever read. . . . You won’t feel the same about the game—guaranteed.”—LARRY KINGWhen I first decided to write a book on te...

It was a blustery late spring day in 1954 and a young Oxford medical student flung himself over the line in a mile race. There was an agonising pause, and then the timekeeper announced the record: three minutes, fifty-nine point four seconds. But no one heard anything after that first word - 'three'. One of the most iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. To this day, more men have conquered Mount Everest t...

A fascinating portrait of the National Football League, the Super Bowl, and all the position players who come together to create the biggest cultural phenomenon in American sports.Think the Super Bowl is only about two teams of titans clashing on the field? Think again. The Super Bowl is about fans, hundreds of millions of fans. It’s about money, more money than the GDP of twenty-five sovereign nations. It’s about precision, the timing of everything from the notorious commercials t...

"The ultimate chronicle of the games behind the game."—The New York Times Book ReviewBaseball has always inspired rhapsodic elegies on the glory of man and golden memories of wonderful times. But what you see on the field is only half the game.In this fascinating, colorful chronicle—based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging—John Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America's fa...

With all-new reporting, a completely revised and updated second edition of the bestseller that takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Divsiion I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship...